Thankful

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm receiving an answer to prayer today that I didn't know until just recently if this request was going to be in God's will for me or not.

I believe it is God's will to provide shelter from the elements. In some places that may just be a shade tree. In fact this morning I was reading on a blog about a mission trip to Africa, to the nation of Angolia. This country is five years beyond a civil war. Some progress is being made in feeding the children of this country. The mission orgaznizations however only have food to offer to the children and nursing mothers. So the workers feed the children and have to observe the adults standing off to the side waiting for their children to eat the one nutritious meal they will have all day.

On the same day I reflect on her mission experience, I'm receiving a gift today which is more than a shelter, it is a home that matches with desires of my heart. The cupboards will be bare when we walk in today but very soon they will be filled up with food. My husband and I will not have to choose which one of us will go without a meal so our son can grow and avoid dying from a mosquito bite.

The extreme differences between these two existences makes so little sense.

In places like Isaiah, which I can't quote right now, there are passages that basically translate, You got fat and happy and you stopped caring about those who were in desperate need. I, God, hold this against you.

So I'm extremely grateful that God has orchestrated the purchase of this home in such a way that I am confident this is a gift from God to us. Our family is going to enjoy living there and sharing the home with others. And I'm asking God to somehow help me enjoy it and at the same time avoid getting fat and happy and ambivalent or arrogant towards those who have less.

Dear Lord,

Thank you. Help us to truly be grateful and even humbled by what you have done for us. Thanks for taking stuff away from us and showing us its more blessed to be without stuff and with you then the other way around. Thank you now for trusting us to have stuff again. Please convict us when we're losing perspective. Please show us how to demonstrate that we care about the needs of others.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen.